Means employed in the art of keeping family records



Mai. 6, 1923.

W. W. CARSON MEANS EMPLOYED INTHE ART oF KEEPING FAMILY RECORDS Filedmay 12, 1919 I WTNESSES.' l. NVENTOH Patented Mar. 6, 1923.

ni se WILLIAM WALLER CARSON,

" oFFLcE. y j

GF KNOXVILLE, TENNESSEE.

MEANS EMPLOYEQN THEJRT OF KEEPING FAMILY ItEQOlRfDS,1

Application led May l2,

ployed in the Art ot Keeping Family Records.

The Word Family as here used by me -includes everyV individual of everygeneration, past, present and'future, who: ,is kin to either thehusband,'the Wife, orboth. In other words it refers to all generationsand includes all ancestors3 alldescendants, and all l5 collaterals, ot'the given husband or -iviie or both.

The words Husband andlVife, as here used by me, reifer to any two matedindi-'viduals of opposite sexivhether ofthe-vegetable or the animalkingdom, andthis in spiteot" the tact that tor brevity, and as the mosttamiliar ot types, I shallspeak hereafteras itl they were human beings.y Y

Then Ispeak-of tivo individualsas being Kin'I mean that theyrhave acommon ancestor.V WhenIi speak ofthem Collaterals I mean that they arekin but that neither is an ancestor of the other.

My invention willI greatly facilitate the study and application of thedoctrines 'of heredity. It- Willl thus facilitate investigations inplantand-animal lite, and help to solve innumerableproblems in the breeding`ot plants and animals. In like mannerit` will be of great help in thestudy oi" sociology, asilieredity records hitherto Welly nigh impossiblemay noiv be made of numberless tants reglatingtodisease, insanity,criminology, mentality, and Whatever has to do with the human bodyl`mind or morals. But it will be used-'most frequently by those 'whohave-'more or less. family pride, by those who wouldddentiiy and rescuetheir `kin from oblivion by recording their names and the prominentfeaturesof their lives.

Numerous efforts, sometimes graphical sometimes analytical, have beenmade to meet the needs ot this last situation, but the efforts havealways broken dow-n. The problem- Was too vasti to be handledgraphically, and the analytical methods lproposed invariably lacked,visionl andi comprehensiveness and anything well thought out in the Wayofva plan or system.

lily invention rests on tivo main features:

1919. Serial No. 296,690,

its system of symbols,` andl its method of tabulation, includingitsreferences.

In daily lite We constantly'designate an individual by naming his officeor the place he tills, as the judge, the colonel, the `plain'- -tiiietc., and so leave it to the conte-Xt to shoiv Whether the referenceisreally tothe place or to the person. The doubl`e-mean ing thus given tothe Wordsfcontributes much to brevity. And despite the 'lack of verbal'AaccuracyLthe custom is free fromobjection y in cases Where thecontext-makesthe *mean-` ing plain. So in such casesI' Will follow themima custom both in this specification and inthe" claims that are tofollow. In ldaily life it isv conceivable that certain ambiguities mightarise from this customl seeing` thatthere` may tor example, beseveralregimentsQeach with its own colonel, and thatpromotions alsobring different men in succession to the headl ot the regiment. Butnothinganalogous can nor can tivo individualsever hold-the sameplace inthe family tree'of agiven husband' and Wife. Thus no two individualscan'be the great great grandfather to the given wife, the lines beingallfpalternalfgnor can the -givfenhusband have Amore than one rst bornuncle on his mothers side. Soli designate anyparticularkinsman of thegiven husband or ivi't'eA by expressing. (by means'of a symbol)- hiskinshiphhis place in the tamilytree.l

lever occur inl my case for I nevergive the g lsame name (symbol) to twodifferent places;-y

Now for each place on this family tree- (though some arezncver filled.)I have asymbol, different from all other'symbols, which accuratelylocates and defines that placeand distinguishes it fromall'other places,and hencel its occupant from all other \indi.vid uals. Thus todesignateany particular kins man I have only to name the syfmbol forvhis place.

My complete symbol for sucha place, evenwhen abbreviated, answers to thecoordinates of a1 point in geometiyin that it. is in` iajcty a compactand explicit formalin or setof* directions, or'passing from thechosenorigin to that particular place. NOW Il make such a. trip by asuccession offunit'orm steps each equal in lengthvto thedistance betweenparent and child.'` T husmy symbol for any` placeisvsimply an exhibit ofthenumber, ot,y steps needed-to reach it and of' the direction` of each.My path" i's'alvvaysalong a family-f tral but down when collateral. And,as I take the origin at a kinsinans place, each step ends at some otherkinsmans place. Hence, for any proposed trip, a. memorandum of thesesuccessive endings is at once an announcement of the Vtotal number ofsteps to be taken and of the direction ot each. Such a. memorandumtherefore is my symbol for any kinsmans-place. It evidently includes thedestination but not the point of departure. This last is called theorigin and must, of course, be announceeL in advance. Thus, one of mysymbols, being an explicit set of directions for making a certain trip,inevitably points to one piace only, and so designates one individualonly-the sole possible occupant olf that place. But while one individual[ills but one place in general, he may in abnormal cases till two oreven more. Thus, since each place has its own symbol, the sameindividual may be designated sometimes by `two different symbols or evenmore. For example, if among the ancestors of the origin, any husband andwife are kin to each other any common ancestor of theirs, beingseparately related to each, occupies two places (sometimes more,depending on the kinship). Similarly a collateral will occupy two, oreven more, places il descended from a pair of parents kin Vto each otherthrough the family blood (see further on). In all cases the occupant ofseveral different places is: pointed to by as many different symbols.This indicates abnormal marriages, easy of location, among his kinbetween his descendants in the ancestral lines if he is of such a line,but between his progenitors if he is a collateral.

So far I have spoken here and there perhaps with needless accuracy. Buthereafter I will not multiply words for the sake of verbal accuracy whenthe context makes itplain enough whether the real reference is to aplace or to its occupant. Indeed these last are so linked together notonly in fact but also in human thought and inode of speech that, toavoid prolixity, it will be necessary to speak sometimes in terms ol5the one and sometimes of the other and to consider them as equallyrepresented by the same symbol. All of this I will do. Ilvery strain ofthe family blood reaches the given husb-and or the wife but usually notboth. But all reach their children. Hence I take a child ot theirs asthe origin so as tog locate the latter on every blood By my method I cankeep accurate count of all such blood streams and their collateralbranches, and assign a separate symbol to every place on every suchstream or b-ranch. But I have no symbols .for places on other blood, nordo I keep count ot anything` not of the family. let-.s stated, I takethe origin at a child, but this child is preferably hypothetical for thedouble reason that the Oiven husband and wife may be childless, and thatthe origin should be without descendantsthis last so that the entirefamily, looked at as pertaining to the origin, may' consistl of twoclasses only, ancestors and collaterale.

That my symbols may be compact I need a short name for a kinsmans place.Hence to every such place I assign, according1 to certain principles, apartial symbol analogous to the Christian namea letter for acollat-erals, a number for an ancestors. A memorandum in sequence of thepartial symbols for the places terminating the successive steps taken inpassing from the origin to any particular place (that for the latterincluded) is my complete symbol for that particular place. This symboltherefore, will be seen hereafter, is a succession of numbers alone orof numbers followed by letters. IIow I abbreviate it without loss ofprecision will be sho-wn further on.

I will now set forth :the principles, or rather conventions, whereby Idetermine the partial symbols to be'assigned. Though I use letters forcollaterals, as stated above, it will be seen that I also use a letter.for an ancestor when enumerating him with the group of brothers andsisters to which he belongs. Thus for kinsmen in general, including anancestor when enumerated as above, I use letters as follows:

a-I letter alphabetically in order of birth the children of everykinsman by every marriage, the first letter going to the first child ofthe marriage. Thus a kinsman several times married may have severalchildren lettered alike. But I score the kinsmans own letter diiferentlyfor the different sets of children, as further on. I use an upper easeletter (capital) for a child of one sex, say the male, and a lower caseletter (small) for a child of the other seX. Also, for fear of ambiguouswriting, for the one sex I overscore the letter and for the other sex Iunder core it. If a kinsman marries several times I use as many scoreswith his letter on any occasion as the number of his marriage implied bythat occasion. Thus I use three scores with a kinsmans letter onoccasions implying children by a third marriage but only two scores onoccasions implying children by a. second marriage.

I am aware that others have applied to a kinsman a partial symbolsometimes a letter, sometimes a number which shows, but only shows, hisnumerical rank among t ie children of one of his parents. But, as justseen, the partial symbol applied by me is a. letter (though a scorednumber would do quite as well save that it would not be always uniformwith convention c for ancestors, further on, by being odd for one sexand even for the other) which shows the kinsmans numerical rank amongthe chil- `or a scored number) ,may not only ydiffer widely from that ofothersin its count,'but it is always more detailedl and explicit.

Butfor ancestors as Isuch'I use only numbers. Thus:

b-Let 0 denote'the 'originy the hypothetical child.

c-Let an odd number denote an individual of oneI sex (say themale) andaneven number one of, the other sex.

ArZ-Let the number ofone parent (say the father) be l greater than twicethe number or" his child. i

`e--Let the. number of the-other parent be 1..greater than the numberyofthe parent first referred to. l

Corollary. A childs number is one half the even number next below eitherparents number.

The lastk four conventions assign a special number to every ancestor andthey give every number a definite' assignment. This maybe demonstratedby mathematics lbut it is easier to see it by .visualizinga mentalproceeding. Thus write down lon the 'groundA in 4a long row theunlimited scale of common numbers, 0, l, 2, 3 etc. Summon the ancestorsin pairs, a. husband and wife together,` and let each pair as called,take Yposition on the lowest pair of numbers then vacant, one sex (as themale) always taking the odd number. Put the origin at O and call hisparents (the givenhusband [and wife) ,to take (l and 2) the first pairof numbers. Call the parents of 1V to take (3 and 4) the next pair; theparents of 2 to take (5 and 6), the. parents of 3 to take (7 and 8), andso on indefinitely. This process evidently assigns to every ancestor thevery number assigned him by my conventions. Hence, since the processuses all the numbers, and againsince it uses allthe ancestors,classiying the latter by generations'and arranging the individuals ofeachv generation in the same definite order as it arranged the children,it is easy to see thatthe conventions do the same. Thus it is seenthatconf ventions b, c, d, ande, just r'eferredfto, 'give a realstructure asymmetrical and well developed ancestral tree, in fact onwhich T hang, sc to speak, inA successive generations, each arranged yinthe same most natural and systematic oifder,v the name-sof all 'theancestors of anyxgivenhusband and wife'. l Similarly it is seen thatthese conventions together with convention-a, give another realstructure, a symmetrical fandf Well `de velo'ped family tfewnztaet,.censetaglet f the. .above ancestral 1tree rvvith pendant branchesofcollaterjals added. i

. Having thus y'shown how `I determine the partial symbols for thevarious flrinsinen. vI will next .Shows hOv lfdetenmin@ their' 90111:plete symbols. j I beginwiththe,ancestors.` I easily visualize theancestral .,partofthe family tree .bygs-upposing. time an'clbl roodstreams to.` reverse theiry flow. 'lhus; theori- 'f gin .puts forth twoparents.v Each of these puts forthtwo; and so con continually. '@Byrepeated usegof d `vandvel easilydetermine and-apply each ancestor7snumber-,that ishis partial Symbol 1 NOW.' Summing,,annealed blood tohave,resunied their normal-fiiow and thatl set outl fromthe origintoreach agiven ancestor, I go up the blood stream, of course. lFrom, each.junction point (ancestor) reached twoI others (his tathergaznd hismother) become visible. That `one isiiny next objective Which4 lies `onthe tributaryl must -ascend to reach vmy vgoal.;.Tlnistlife' V' completesymbol i(answering Yto the full name) forany givenfancestors.place'isseries of numbers which I- readilyfcompile step step. For, as seenabove, itis ,butl

a memorandum of the. j ust determined .par-

tial symbols for.` the termini ofthe successive I steps to be. taken inpassing.alongithe'` blood stream from the origin to thesaidzgivenvancestors place, thelatter inclusive. f c

I come now ,to-the collaterais.` 1..,efasily visualize a portion. of.the collateral part io'l the family tree by remembering thatto-.i pair:of parents of: theancestral stream l (or to either one if marriedfmorethanonce) children may be born inaddition to theone in theancestralline, andto `theseotlie`r children, and so. onA continually.Ilgeepno count of the new'. blood brought inv bvV the marriages of thesechildren. I' follownlj the lblood of the V.original familjgfblood fromstreams that reach thelorigin`-- Now, to compile thecomplete symbol fora given collateral, I set. out from the origin, ascend theproper`ancestral stream to 'the efliux point and thendescend the collateralstream, all by a series otequal steps each terminatingat kinsmans place.'In de'- scending T am ofcourse Ialways careful to step` from'a parenttothat particular child ot' his throughv whom -flows that rivulet fromthe `familyb1ood which iinally reaches'my goal, i. e., thel givencollateral. Thus the complete symbol for any given' co'llateralsplace-the memorandum of the partial symbols l:tor the termini of thesteps talienin passing alongthe blood stream fromthe origin to thegivencollateral (the latter inL clusive)'-isa series of numbers followedby a series of' letters; It contains as many numbers as there aregenerations between origin andelilux point (the latterninclusive) and asmany letters as there are generations between efflux point and the givencollateral (the latter inclusive). F or remote genera-- tions it islong. But in every case I abbreviate the numerical part (see below) bywriting only the last number of the series. And as collaterals more thantwo or three generations removed from the ancestral stream are generallyignored the symbols really used will consist of a single number followedby one, two or even three letters, but seldom more.

Example 1. To find the symbol for the given husbands grandmother:Setting out from the origin I reach by successive steps 1 (givenhusband-by (Z), 4 (his mother by (Z and e), 10 (her mother by (Z and e),which record becomes after omitting explanations, 1,4, 10.

This is the complete symbol for this grandmother. But I abbreviate it(as all other complete symbols for ancestors) and definitely locate theplace by giving the last number only. For, here as elsewhere, it iseasily seen that the entire succession of nuinbers may be written outbackwards from the last number by a repeated use of the corollarypointed out above.

Example 2. To find who 25 stands for. The complete symbol, instructionsfor the trip, see corollary, is 2, 5, 12, 25. Cr, insertingexplanations, 2 (the given wife, by d and e), 5 (her father, by (l), 12(his mother, by i and c), 25 (her father, by (l).

" Thus 25 is the fathen Vof the given wifes paternal grandmother.

Example 3. To find the symbol for the given wifes maternal grandfathersthird (a female) childs second (a male) child by her third marriage. IVeeasily write out the following record of the trip, 2 given wife), (5(her mother), 13 maternal grandfatherthe efflux point, C (third child,female, third marriage), B (second child, male). Thus the symbolbecomes, after abbreviating the numerical part of the record, 13 C B.

yThe last example suggests the need of an additional convention. For a.collateral branch may leave the ancestral stream through one parent (incase of plural marriage) or through a pair of parents the latter beingperhaps the most common. Thus I have the following: Convention, let ascore under an odd number stand for the words and the next higher numberalso, and a score over an even number for the words and the next lowernumber also. Thus either 1li or 'lll stands for 13 and 14. of whichabbreviations I will generally use the first. Now if the collateralbranch in the last example had left the ancestral stream through thegrandmother (instead of the grandfather, as announced) the cgi:

laterals symbol would havebeen 14 C B if throughpmboth it wouldgenerally be written l C but if I want to bring out the fact that thiswas the first, say, of several mailiages of this grandmother I wouldwrite it lic Cl.l

Before dismissing the subject of symbols I mustsa-y something aboutsurnames,- this with special reference to collaterals and theirtabulation.

It is easy to see that I really make the symbol for any collateral bysimply annex,- ing the partial symbol (answering to Christ-ian name) forthat collateral to the symbol of his parent, either complete orabbreviated. But notice that this parent, whether male or female (oreven both, as in a few lines back), can have no symbol unless of thefamily blood. The parents symbol therefore (whatever it may be, and

without reference to his sex) answers to the surname for each and everyone of his children. But this surname, being somewhat differently scoredfor different marriages, will not be exactly the same forr children bydifferent marriages. Now inv tabulating collaterals I try to put thechildren of the same individual together, each with his symbol attached;though often the children of several individuals will be gotten on thesame page. But the several groups of children will easily bedistinguished and identified by the surnames.

In the breeding of plants and beasts the order of birth and the numberof the mating are apt4 to be unknown and of no interest. In such cases,to avoid the use of symbols which would probably be erroneous, I use asthe partial symbol for every child and on every occasion some one letteras X from the proper case with a single score tofshow the sex.

My method of tabulation, including its references, is shown in theaccompanying drawing. Y

4Figure 1 shows my table for ancestors with several entries, and Fig. 2shows my table with several entries for kinsmen in general or, as I saymore brieliy, for collaterals. Each table covers both pages of the openbook and extends over as many su'cceeding pages as may be necessary. Thedouble vertical line X is the middle of the double page, i. e., it is inthe back, the hinge or line about which the leaves of the book turn. Ispeak of a book. For, though it is possible to keep the family recordson detached sheets, it is better to keep them in a book. As will be seenmy two tables. are identical in their rulings and headings except in.rthis-that there are no heavy rulings to separate the generations in Fig.2 and that the lirst column in Fig. 2 headed Symbol is subdivided inFig. 1 into three columns headed Fathen Symboh Child,

The 'fa-ct that the 'collateral symbol is usually much wider than thatfora-n ancestor makes this possible. And these additional columns thoughunneeded where collateral symbols are used, are of great use whereancestral Symbols are used, since these last would otherwise call `forVmental calculations (with risk orn mistake) in passing up or downthrough the generations.

I should say that, in using my tables, I personally prefer that methodof entry common in railroad transit books, which numbers or letters itslines Jfrom the bottom towards the top of thepage, but that indeterenceto popular taste l use the contrary methodin the drawing.

Lack of vspace in the drawing vcauses me to make all the -columnsnarrowensome or them considerably narrower, than experience shows to bedesirable. Moreover lack of'spac'e compels me Ato make a large eX-cision fromeach table, say, from the vright hand page Tin Fig. landAfrom the left hand page in Fig. 2. However, y'as -the parts cut.

from onev table are identical with corresponding parts left inthe otherit is easy 'the column headed Father is 'the series` of odd numbersbeginning vwith 3. In the` column headed .Symbfolt is -the seriesk otnatural numbers beginning with l. `In the column headed Child is the'duplicated` series of natural numbers beginning with O;

that is, eachnumber of the natural'series is writtenv on two consecutivelines; or, better still. the alternate lines are dittoed or. ylettvblank as shownl in Fig. l; As a check it should be noted that the threenumbers on any line -must conform to Z and e, that is to the Corollary.All `these numbers lare, alike, zboth the partial and vthe complete"though abbreviated symbols for individuals.

In Fig. l the numbers in the column headed Symbol7 are the symbols forthe various ancestors, and hence set' apart to each. ancestor in advance`hisparticular line. The

numbers in the other two columns are to facili-tate the use-of thetable. Thus any number in `the column headed Father is,

in fact. thesymbol for the father of the ancestor in Whose line-*thatnumberappears. Henceany ancestors father may be seen and turned-to -atonce; orfthemother may be seen if see e) the'number inthe fathers columnSimilarly any number (Whether actually r'placed-.or lsimply implied by aditto-or a.`

blank) in the column headed Childis in fact thesymbol for the child ofthe ancestor in whose line that number kappears.` Hence theI saidancestors child may be turned 'to at once. Itis evident that either thecolumn vheaded Father `or that `headed tChild,

or both,could bel omitted but at considerable loss of convenience. i L iSfnceancestors are necessarily detinite as to number, sex, and order, Ican, v4as. above,

assign to each ancestor his line in advance.

But the case is not sofor collateralssirice `families are not the `sameas .to numberasex and orderor' birth. -Thus,fin using a tableforcollaterals I have to assign to each vindi-L vidual-his proper lineasI insert theentries. I should say that I do Alnot ru'lethe 'whole .ibookv'for the tables, but:thatV I..leavek quite half otit for thebiographical'sketches- Having thus shown how .my tables are pre- QPared,it only remains toshovvhow If'enter vthe records, although aninspectionofthe drawing may alr'eadyhave made thispla-in enough. It isnecessary to enter naines in' o the table of ancestorsfbeforetheyareenteredin the table ofcollaterals.- In other respects the entries inVthetwot'a'bles may -proloecd accordingl to -theiconvenience or whimofthe recorder, All names, Christian, middle. and surname,l -I carefullys'pell'outfinw full. I use a womans maiden name only and Vneverattachher husbands name toits' ."Io fill out the Atableofancestors InoticeI l(see b, Zand e) that l isthe. number 'of the givenghusband and2 0i' Athegiven.fw'iie. -Sof Iententhename ofthe given husband(.possibly not yet married.) in the,.pr'oper line and column. But if his"name j'sho'uld .be unknown (for a book maybe prepared 'for alittle'Aboy or lgirl and the' spou'ses kkin f entered in later. I:

years) I enter the given Wifes name in her proper line and column. In:either 'case I I next enter in'orde'r'on lines alreadyiset apart t'othem fbytheir symbols, all known "an- 'cestors vbearing :the surnamevalready entered. 'llhu's itthe given lhusbands name was enteredI see.inthe propercolumn and'onfhis line that his yfathers number is gso .Ienter this fathersname on 4line 3. Similarly I see that 'tfhe atherotthelastfis l7,.so I'nter his name online 7, andfso on until all-known'ancestors of this `line, and'.A surname :have been entered. This beingdone (or Without doing it if the given husband vis link-nowh) I 'now'enter the nameV of thegivien'wife (if known) in line 2. Then, asbefore, I see that her father is 5, and so on. Thus as before, I enterall known ancestors of that line and surname in their proper lines. And,in general, after entering all known males of oneV line and surname Iproceed as follows repeatedly. To the husband of the lowest number notalready supplied I supply, on her proper line, the name of his'wife, andthen enter, as shown above, the names of her father, grandfather, etc.,that is of all bearing her surname. I repeat this process continually,always commencing by supplying the wife to the husband of lowest numbernot already supplied, and entering next the names of her male ancestorsof her surname. I thus deal with the same surname as long as possible soas to avoid the risk of mistake due to frequent changes. The dates,children, etc., and the prominent features of the life, I insert at suchtimes and in such order as I find most convenient. When any individualsbiography, .possibly extending over many pages, has been written I enteron his line and in the column headed Biog the number of its initialpage. I enter the number of his children, males above, females below, inthe childrens column sub-headed No And in their column sub-headed Page7I enter the number of the page on which (in the table of collaterals) Ienumerate the children, apply their symbols, and describe them, asabove, For a more detailed explanation let John Jones and Mary Kyle bethe given husband and wife. I enter them (Fig. 1) on lines 1 and 2 withdates, putting date of marriage on the husbands line. I do not enter thedate of the husbands death for, though old, he is still living. Asseen,rtheir biographies are to be found on pages 118 and 119respectively.

Their children were two sons and one daughter whom I enumerate anddescribe on page (see Fig. 2) where I apply their symbols.

From the entries I there make, and here quote in part, the followingfacts appear: 1A Alfred Jones, oldest child, a son.

1E Roy J ones, second child, a son.

1p Mary Jones, third child, a daughter.

lfreds only marriage was toY Mary Rogers. Their biographies ai'e bothgiven on page 120. They had one son and one daughter who are enumeratedon page 67.

Roy (biography on page 153) was married first to Anna Racy (biog. p.155) by whom he had three daughters (enumerated on page 67 Later hemarried Mary Hyder, (biography on p. 156).

Mary Jones (biog. p. 211) married Harper (biog. p. 208) by whom she hadthree sons an d four daughters (enumerated on page 83 I always enter ahusband and wife together-the wifes line after that of her Ifig. 1.

and description which I have just given, and

husband. In the case of a collateral I connect the two lines with abrace (Fig. 2) to show the marriage, for the spouse of a collateral hasno symbol. F or an ancestor as such there can be but one marriage. Butfor a collateral (including any ancestor) there may' be severalmarriages. I place each later spouse on the line adjacent to that of thepreceding one and lengthen the brace to take in the entire family. Thedate and the children of any marriage I ordinarily enter in theliusbands line. But if the latter is a collateral who married severaltimes I enter the date and the numbers of the children on the lines ofthe wives to whom they pertain. All of this is shown in Fig. 2. In thecollateral table, on any page where I find just room enough (this toeconomize space) I enter in order of birth the children of any kinsmanleaving room for their spouses and separating themv into groups if theycome of different marriages. But in the ancestral table the line foreach ancestor is assigned in advance as already pointed out.

It has been seen that my abbreviated symbols for ancestors as such arenumbers, the larger numbers going tothose more remote from the origin.The effect of this, though I do not stop to demonstrate it, is toclassify the ancestors in my table according to their generations. Now,as an aid to the eye, I use an eXtra heavy ruling to separate the lineon which one generation ends from the line on which the next generationbegins. Thus (see convention d) the rulings are eXtra heavy before thellines numbered 1, 3, "I, 15, 31, 63, 127, 255, and so on, of which thefirst three are shown in It will be seen in the specification in theclaims which I am about to make, that I class and include the givenhusband and wife with their own ancestors.

Having thus described my invention what Iv claim as new and desire tosecure by Letdicated by even numbers and the species of the opposite sexby odd numbers.

2. A table for symbols, names, dates and other descriptive genealogicaldata, consisting of parallel lines crossed by parallel columns; whichtable contains three series of numbers, each series being in columnformation, and being spaced and located with reference to the lines, andto the other series, and being determined in its make up by themathematical law needed all -so that if the numbers falling on any linebe arranged in order of magnitude the smaller number of any pair ofnumbers then adjacent to each other shall be half the greatest evennumber that is less than the greater number of the pair-all asdescribed.

3. A table for symbols, names, dates and other descriptive genealogicaldata, consisting of parallel lines crossed by parallel columns; whichtable contains two series of numbers, each series being in columnformation, and. being spaced and located with reference to the lines,and to the other series, and being determined in its make up by themathematical law needed, all so that the smaller of any two numbers thatfall on any line is half the greatest even number intermediate inmagnitude between the said two numbersf-for the purpose set forth and asdescribed.

4. A chart of ancestors of a husband and wife which designates ancestorsby names and also by numbers with the two designations combined n suchmanner that the number attached to the name of the childof `any ancestoris half the greatest even number less than the number attached to thename of said ancestor.

WILLIAM WALLER CARSON.

vWitnesses: e

CHARLES EDWARD FERRIS, CHARLES ALBERT PERKINS.

